Bell Bay Power Station, Tasmania

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The Bell Bay Power Station is located on the Tamar River at Bell Bay, Tasmania, Australia. It has two 120 MW gas fired steam turbines and three 35 MW gas turbines, giving a total capacity of 345 MW of electricity.

Bell Bay was commissioned in 1971 with a single 120 MW oil-fired Babcock & Wilcox, single drum, reheat boiler, suppling steam to an NEI Parsons steam turbine with hydrogen cooled generator. In 1974 a second near identical unit followed. Cooling water is via a once through cooling system, drawing water directly from the Tamar river. Three fuel oil tanks, each of 15,000 tonne capacity supplied the 600 tonne's of fuel oil per day required to run each of steam sets. Fuel oil was delivered by tank ship and discharged across a dedicated oil jetty at the site. The 110 meter tall stack is a distinctive feature in the area.

The power stations original role was to provide system security and drought relief in Tasmania's predominantly Hydro Electric based generation system. Because of this role, Bell Bay Power Station had rarely been called on to operate, with intervals of 5 to 8 years between any significant periods generation.

In 2003, Unit one was converted to natural gas when a pipeline from Victoria to Tasmania was established. This was followed in 2004 by a conversion of the second unit from fuel oil to natural gas firing. Three 35 MW gas turbines were added in 2006. These gas turbine units are Pratt & Whitney FT8 Twin Pac open cycle units, acquired from an existing facility in the US.

Bell Bay is owned and operated by Hydro Tasmania via wholly owned subsidiary companies, although West Australian power company Alinta agreed to buy the site in March 2007 for $75 million, to provide back-up power for a proposed 200 MW Combined Cycle power station in the Tamar Valley, due for completion in early 2009.^[1]